


Not So Wisdom Teeth

by mermaidforeachother



Category: Free!
Genre: Anxious Thoughts, Cats, Dentists, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Makoto the Precious Cinnamon Bun Who is Too Pure for this World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 03:56:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3635724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mermaidforeachother/pseuds/mermaidforeachother
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coming out of anesthesia was fun for everyone.</p>
<p>Except Makoto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not So Wisdom Teeth

**Author's Note:**

> Based partially on personal experience, and partially on what I'd find funny. 
> 
> Many thanks to [Shinx](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyshinx/pseuds/ladyshinx) for being an awesome beta.

At seventeen, Makoto considered himself grown up enough to be past many of his childhood fears. The ocean didn't bother him as much anymore, the dark was just fine as long as he was in someplace familiar, and he wasn't as shy as he used to be, either. He could happily hold conversation with any new person he met, even if he tended to talk to his close friends a little more. The point was, he told himself, at 17, much of his old fears were all but gone.

Except needles. And surgery.

When you have wisdom teeth cutting through your gums and hurting your jaw, however, there is little you can do to avoid it. He sorely wished he could skip it altogether- maybe be a new link in the evolutionary chain. It sounds infinitely more appealing. The needles weren't the worst part, no, they were certainly bad enough but it was the thought of having his teeth dug out of his jaw and the buzzing sound the tools would make. The suction and metallic taste of blood- no, no, no. He shuddered. There was no way he could do that, just thinking about having to go through it made his heart pound and his chest tighten up, a sick feeling which formed in the pit of his stomach.

It was because of this that he decided to be put under general anesthetic for his procedure. He'd rather the possible goofiness than the personal trauma of having to hear his own teeth being removed or cut through, even.

So there he was, leaned back in a dentist's chair, a bright light shining on him, trying to remain calm. The surgeon and anesthesiologist were next to him, explaining the procedure to him and his parents before the drugs were administered. He'd be put under twilight anesthetic and wake up really groggy when the teeth were removed. He could do that, yes. Groggy was fine. Compared to nightmare inducing buzzing and suction, groggy was good.

The anesthesiologist motioned towards his arm, "I'm going to do it now, okay?"

Makoto gulped and pushed down his nervousness, then nodded, breathing out a shaky, "Y-yeah."

"Just try to relax as much as you can, we'll take care of you." The doctor spoke soothingly, reassuring Makoto that everything would surely go smoothly as he readied the IV.

He swiped an antiseptic over the crook of the boy's arm and tied a tourniquet around his upper arm, searching for a vein. "Now just be very still, it'll only pinch a little."

He looked away as the needle went in, feeling a pinch in his arm and a strange, kind of unpleasant pressure in his vein where the needle was. He dared a peek at his arm and blanched. "Oh god, I'm actually doing this."

"Yes you are, you'll be fine though." The anesthesiologist prepared the anesthetic before expertly feeding it into the IV. "Now, Mr. Tachibana, I want you to count to 100, please."

"O-Okay." The tall brunet took a deep breath, "1..2..3..4..5..6....7..9..10..11...-"

His consciousness of the room faded.

* * *

 

Makoto woke up more gradually than he went to sleep. First, he heard sounds, somewhat distantly and muffled. He laid there and listened as they came closer and became clearer. His eyes felt like lead as he cracked them open, blinking blearily as his vision pulled in and out of focus. He tried to move his right arm but wasn't quite ready to do that. His body felt very weak, but he didn't feel like it should be weak.

Turning his head, he spotted his parents.

"Mom? Dad? When did you get here?" he slurred, "You didn't do the surgery, did you?" His mother giggled and his father shook his head.

"No, we're here to take you home." he explained.

Makoto stared at them blankly for a moment, collecting his scattered thoughts. "Okay," he said slowly, "Good. You're not dentists."

Mrs. Tachibana smiled at her confused son, "That's right honey, we're not dentists.  Do you need help up?"

Makoto successfully sat up in a reclining position. "No, I - I'm fine..."

A nurse came into the room with a wheelchair, "Can you get into this on your own or do you need help? You'll be pretty dizzy for a while."

The brunet smiled as best as he could at the nurse, processing the words with a vague sense of fogginess clouding his mind. He hummed affirmatively. Bracing his hands on the sides of the seat, he attempted to lift himself into a straighter position, but his arms began to shake and shudder, preventing him from doing so. He grunted.

"N - Need help, sorry. I'm s-shaking?" he said, mystified.  The shivers wracked his whole body for several moments. He stared down at his lap until they subsided, then grabbed his father's proffered hand, gripping it tightly as he swung his legs over the side of the dentist chair and lowered himself into the wheelchair presented to him. "Thank you." He murmured to the nurse who smiled at him and said she'd fetch the surgeon to go over the after - surgery care.

His mother clucked her tongue and made a sympathetic sound, reaching her hand down to card through his hair, "I'm sorry you had to do that, sweetie."

"M'okay.  Can't feel my face. Love you, mom."

"Oh honey," she enthused, "I love you, too."

His father patted his shoulder soothingly and grabbed the wheelchair, steering it out of the surgery room and around the corner into the recovery room, while his wife stayed behind to talk to the surgeon. 

A few minutes later, she joined them in the recovery room, a thin packet of care instructions and a sandwich bag of gauze clutched in her hand. 

"We'll just be here for a minute until we can get the release papers signed. Sit still and try not to talk too much, your mouth is stitched up." Mr. Tachibana said.

"Stitched up?" Makoto asked himself.

"Yes," explained his mother, "They took your wisdom teeth out so you needed some stitches. They'll dissolve on their own in a few days."

"They have my teeth." Stated the boy in the wheelchair.

"Yes." His mother replied.

"Okay.  I didn't need them.....right?"

"Right."

"Okay"

Mrs. Tachibana pet her son's head gently, watching him as her husband filled out the release forms.

"Let's go now, okay? The twins are at their neighbor-friends, so they should be home soon after us."

They got Makoto bundled into their car easily.  He fumbled with the seat belt only a moment, looking disproportionately happy when he got it to click.

A minute after they got into the car, it started to rain. Mr. Tachibana sighed at the weather and turned in the windshield wipers. Makoto thought it was a little sad that the raindrops on their car would never make part of a rainbow, but he understood that the ground needed water, too.

As they were driving, they passed a bus stop which had a young cat huddled under the bench, taking shelter from the rain. Makoto was suddenly struck with pity.  That cat didn't deserve to be out in the rain. It needed a loving home. Overcome with emotion, he started to cry, there wasn't anything he could do to help the cat where he was. What if that was someone he knew? It could have been anyone. Nobody deserved to be cold and wet and alone. The poor cat could be starving, too! Or sick! Makoto covered his eyes with his hands and began to sob loudly, tears streaming down his face.

The whirlwind of his emotions shocked his parents, as he was sedate just a moment ago.

"Are you okay, Makoto?" His mother asked, worried that he'd hurt his jaw somehow.

He continued to cry, sobbing out, “the cat!"

"Cat?" His parents wondered.

"It passed us! All alone, what if it's starving?!" he started sobbing louder, "Who would do that!? It's got to be cold and lonely!"

Mr. and Mrs. Tachibana looked at each other, utterly confused as what they should do to get their seventeen year old son to stop crying about the cat.

"Makoto, I'm sure it's fine? It probably has a nice home."

"Maybe it was taking the bus." whispered Makoto. His father snorted from the driver's seat.

Mrs. Tachibana ventured in a kind voice, "Why don't you try to calm down, you might rip your stitches or start bleeding again."

"I can't, mom." he murmured, tears still leaking out.

'"Why not, honey?"

"I want to hug them all."

His father pipes up from the front, "Makoto, you can't possibly hug every cat."

The brunet gasped in realization, "I can't.  You're right, I can't.  I don't have enough arms to hug them all!" The teenager starts his crying anew, wailing "They're going to be lonely because I don't have enough arms!"

This time, both of his parents started to laugh, trying their best to not be too obvious, since their child was clearly distressed about not being able to hug every single cat on the planet.  "Just. Calm down a bit, we'll be home soon, you need to nap and take some medicine and then you'll feel a whole lot better about only having two arms." His father assured him. His mother confirmed that, telling him he'd be home soon.

He did his best to calm down and wipe the tears from his face, but it was difficult to do when he still couldn't feel his face. He lightly glided his fingertips across his cheeks and around his jaw, but while he could feel the sensation of soft skin under his fingers, there was no feedback from his face to tell him it was being touched.

The drive home passed quickly and they arrived shortly at their house. A few short seconds after they walked through the door, Makoto being guided lightly by his father, Ren and Ran returned from the neighbors, jackets lightly wet from the rain. They'd probably seen them pull in and came rushing over.

They looked towards Makoto and saw his reddened, tear-stained face and puffy eyes, and looked questioningly toward their parents. "Did it hurt that bad?" Ran asked with concern.

"Oh, no, not at all, your brother couldn't feel a thing and probably still doesn't."

"Then why's it look like he was sobbing?" questioned Ren, who ignored the elbow and angry "I was gonna ask that." from his sister.

Their father, who was getting pudding ready in the kitchen, chimed in, clearly amused, “He was upset that he can't hug every cat."

Their older brother turned towards them, touched by their worry. Once he saw them, however, so tiny and damp from the rain, he remembered the cat from the car ride and thought about what it would be like if his little siblings were in that same position. His chest tightened and his eyes began to leak again, as he rushed towards them and knelt on the ground to hug them both closely to him. "I'll never leave you outside to starve." he choked out.

The twins returned his hug, Ren whispering under his breath, "Ran would", and their mother appeared by Makoto's side, gently grabbing his elbow.

"Okay, I think it's time for you to sleep. Let's get the gauze out first, it should've stopped bleeding by now."

The teen obediently opened his mouth as far as he thought he could, reaching his hand delicately into the back of his mouth, grasping the gauze and lifting it gingerly, somewhat surprised it was actually there, despite his parents and the doctors mentioning it several times. He threw it away with a grimace. It was slimy, gross.

"Now can I hug the cats?"

"We don't have any cats inside and you need to sleep now."

"But-"

Mrs. Tachibana interjected, "I'll call Haru over, how about that?"

Makoto settled down. "Okay." Haru would understand about the cats.

His mother sent him to the bathroom to wash off the small flecks of blood that had fallen out of his mouth and dried onto his face. He frowned at the substance. That was gross, too.

Task completed, he ambled towards his room, his mother following close behind him to make sure he got into bed without hurting himself. "If you need anything, let me know, okay? Haru will be over in just a minute, your father already called him and I'll be on my way to pick up your medication in a little bit."

"Thanks mom."

"No problem, sweetie. I love you."

"Love you too, mom." she smiled sweetly at him and walked out of the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

A couple (agonizing) minutes later, Haruka walked into his room. The slender young man entered with ice packs in his hands and his face pinched up, eyebrows furrowed.  "You were crying?" His expression practically demanded to know why. 

"I only have two arms, Haru." Haruka handed the ice packs to Makoto, who took them gratefully and placed them on his jaw.

"I see."

"I can't hug all the cats with two arms." Makoto explained, voice strained with emotion.

"You're right, you can't.  You'd need at least eight." Makoto smiled. He knew his closest friend would be able to understand.

Haruka's expression smoothed out, reassured that Makoto wasn't truly hurt beyond him being a bit loopy and somehow more of a crybaby than when he was younger. He sat on the edge of the bed next to Makoto.

"Yeah," Makoto continued, "I'd need at least eight. But I only have two? So, I can only pet two cats at a time. Or one big one- Two little, one big cat."

Haru nodded absently, not really following the conversation,  but picking up enough pieces to tease his boyfriend about later. Makoto trailed off during his rant, and looked at Haru thoughtfully.

"Hey, Haru?"

"Hm?"

"Haru's like a big cat, can I pet you? Your hair is really soft."

Haruka blinked. Being likened to a cat wasn't anything new, and neither was Makoto wanting to run his fingers through his hair, but putting the two together sounded a little weird.

"I'm not going to meow."

"That's fine, I like Haru's regular voice best. When you're talking, and laughing and moa-"

"H-Hey now!"

"Oh? You're blushing."

"It's your fault."

"I'm glad."

Makoto reached his hand up ran it through Haruka's raven hair, lightly ruffling it and gently massaging the scalp with his fingers. The strands were thin and silky, being easily mussed by the brunet's large hand. It was surprisingly soft for how often they swim, but it was perfect for carding through and petting, and always smelled vaguely like some kind of sea salt shampoo.

Haruka closed his eyes and leaned into the warm hand caressing his head. Makoto giggled at the action, “Are you sure you won't meow?"

Haruka narrowed his eyes at the boy laying in bed, more amused than anything. "Positive.  You need to sleep, now."

The other teenager pouted, letting his hand drop from Haruka's head and flop onto the bed next to him. He frowned for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "Picture! Take a picture with me, Haru!"

Haruka sighed, "Will you go to sleep if I do?"

"Of course, anything you say!"

Haruka was skeptical of that promise, but still leaned in towards Makoto when the boy fumbled in his pocket for his cellphone, quickly flipping it open and turning the camera on. A split second before the camera went off, Makoto turned his head quickly and planted a large kiss on Haruka's cheek, making his eyes go wide in surprise.

The brunet giggled again, finding it utterly hilarious that he was able to catch his boyfriend off guard.

Haruka smiled wryly and wiped his cheek off, the kiss had been unpleasantly wet.

"You're really out of it."

This sent the giggling boy into a fit of laughter, "I can't feel my lips!"

"You don't say"

"I did."

"You drooled on me, dummy."

Makoto gasped, "I'm sorrrrry!" He grabbed Haruka's hands in his own, eyes pleading for forgiveness.

The raven haired boy was bemused, he wasn't even mad to begin with.

"Its fine," he said, "Just go to sleep now, you'll feel less out of it when you wake up."

Still holding onto Haruka's hands, Makoto asked, "Will you still be here?"

"I don't have anything else to do."

"Thank you, Haru."

"Go to sleep."

Makoto finally leaned back and closed his eyes, swiftly falling asleep, a hand held within Haruka's.

* * *

 

When he woke up for the third time that day, he immediately wanted to go back sleep. Pain was throbbing from his jaw to his entire face. He tried to groan, but that only made the pain worse so he simply twisted his face. The numbness had definitely gone away, but he found himself desperately wishing for it back

Hearing pained noises from the bed, Haruka got up from his position on the floor. After Makoto fell asleep, Haruka's arm and side quickly fell asleep, so he gently disentangled himself from his friend's grasp and settled on the floor to do his homework. 

"Makoto."

"Haru?" The boy gritted out.

"Do you think you can eat something?"

"Starving." He was taking slow, deep, breathes.

Haruka gestured towards the nightstand, "Your mom brought in the medicine for you."

Makoto made a grateful noise and snatched up the water and pills left on the nightstand, swallowing as gently as he could.

"I love her."

"She knows, you said it several times while under the influence."

"I did?"

"You cried, too." Haruka smirked.

Makoto frowned. "I did..?" He looked at his lap, thinking, then looked up at Haruka, "When did you get here?"

**Author's Note:**

> After this, Makoto never looks at jello and pudding the same way again.


End file.
